Principles are powerful. But sometimes what a woman needs is to see what it actually looks like on a real plate, in a real day, in a real life.
I get asked this more than almost anything else.
Rachel, what do you actually eat?
Not the framework. Not the research. Not the biology — though I love all of that, and you know I will always give you the science behind the choices.
But what does it actually look like?
What does a day of eating look like for a woman who has reversed insulin resistance, released 30 pounds without dieting, normalized her labs, resolved her hot flashes and restless legs and chronic inflammation — and is now, at 56, the healthiest she has ever been in her adult life?
I want to show you.
Not as a prescription.
Not as a meal plan you are required to follow.
Not as a meal plan you are required to follow.
But as a real-life illustration of how the principles we have been discussing all year actually live in a daily rhythm.
Because principles without examples can feel abstract. And I never want what I teach to feel out of reach.
☀️ The Morning — How I Start Before I Eat Anything
Before I talk about food, I want to talk about what happens before food.
Because the morning ritual that precedes my first meal is as much a part of my metabolic health as anything I put on my plate.
Morning light first.
Within 30 minutes of waking, I go outside... it's one of the perks of having chickens, they make me get up and go outside to feed them. Even in Ohio in October. Even when it is gray. Even when it is snowy.
Ten minutes of natural light exposure sets my cortisol rhythm for the day, anchors my circadian clock, and begins the melatonin countdown that will support my sleep tonight. This is non-negotiable for me — not because I am rigid about it, but because I have felt the difference clearly enough to protect it.
Water before anything else.
A full glass — sometimes two — before coffee, before mate', before anything. My liver has been working all night. It needs water before it needs anything else.
My fasting window.
I close my kitchen at a consistent time in the evening and keep it closed until I am genuinely ready to eat in the morning — typically giving my body 14-16 hours of overnight rest from eating. This is not starvation. It is the most natural metabolic rhythm the human body knows — the one our biology was designed around before artificial light and 24-hour food access disrupted it.
I do not eat breakfast the moment I wake up. I wait until I am genuinely hungry. And I notice — every single morning — that the quality of that hunger is different from the urgent, blood-sugar-crashing hunger I used to experience. It is calm. Patient. Informative.
That shift alone tells me my insulin sensitivity has changed.
Mate' during my fasting window.
I drink mate' in the morning — a traditional South American tea with a unique combination of compounds that support metabolism, provide gentle sustained energy without the cortisol spike of coffee, and carry antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that I have come to genuinely value. If you are interested and want to know exactly what I drink, reply and ask me directly I'm happy to share this amazing drink.
🍳 The First Meal — What It Looks Like and Why It's Built This Way
My first meal of the day is the most important metabolic decision I make.
It sets my blood sugar tone, my energy, my insulin response, and my hunger pattern for the entire day.
Here is how I build it:
Fiber comes first — always.
Before any carbohydrate, I eat something with soluble fiber. Sometimes this is as simple as half an avocado. A handful of raw vegetables. A packet of my favorite diverse plant based fiber supplement mixed into water before I eat. A small salad eaten before the rest of the meal.
This single habit — fiber before carbs — blunts the glucose spike from everything that follows, slows absorption, feeds my gut microbiome, and changes the metabolic character of the entire meal.
It took me two years to fully internalize how significant this one simple change is. Now I cannot imagine eating without it.
Protein anchors every meal.
Eggs — pasture-raised (I'm lucky I have my own chickens) but there are lots of local eggs for sale along the roadside. Sometimes with leftover roasted vegetables from the night before. Sometimes with avocado, sometimes with sautéed greens cooked in butter or olive oil, sometimes with smoked salmon when I want something different.
I aim for 30 or more grams of protein at my first meal — not by counting, but by building the meal around a substantial protein source and knowing roughly what that looks like on a plate after two years of paying attention.
Protein keeps me genuinely satisfied for hours, preserves the muscle mass that my metabolism depends on, and keeps my blood sugar stable in the hours that follow in a way that a carbohydrate-led breakfast simply does not.
I'm not saying I'm always getting 30 or more grams of protein but I sure try my best to incorporate more protein it does make a difference.
What I do not include in my first meal:
Refined carbohydrates on their own.
Sweetened yogurt.
Fruit juice.
Most cereals — even the ones marketed as healthy.
Seed oils — I cook with butter, avocado or olive oil.
Sweetened yogurt.
Fruit juice.
Most cereals — even the ones marketed as healthy.
Seed oils — I cook with butter, avocado or olive oil.
This is not restriction. It is the result of two years of paying attention to what my body does after different first meals. The high-carbohydrate breakfast produces a blood sugar spike followed by a crash that drives cravings and energy dips by early afternoon. The protein-and-fiber-anchored first meal produces steady, sustained energy that carries me through the morning without reaching for anything else.
The difference is not subtle!
🥗 The Middle of the Day
I eat when I am genuinely hungry — not by the clock.
On many days, my substantial first meal carries me comfortably through to early afternoon, which means I am effectively eating in a compressed window without any rigid meal-timing rules. I simply pay attention to hunger signals and respond to actual hunger rather than habitual eating.
When I do eat a midday or early afternoon meal:
Again, built around protein and fiber first.
A large salad with a quality protein — grilled chicken, hard-boiled eggs, canned wild salmon, leftover meat from dinner. Olive oil and apple cider vinegar as dressing. A variety of vegetables — whatever is fresh and seasonal, and always aiming for diversity.
I think about the 30-plants-per-week goal with genuine pleasure rather than as a task. Summer means tomatoes and cucumbers and fresh herbs. Fall means soups, roasted root vegetables and leafy greens and brussels sprouts. Each season offers different plants, different fiber sources, different phytonutrients — and my gut microbiome thrives on that variety.
What I notice:
On the days I eat this way, I do not experience the 3pm energy crash that plagued me for years.
On the days I let the pattern slip — eating more refined carbohydrates without the fiber-first buffer, skipping protein, eating in a way that raises and then drops my blood sugar — I feel it clearly and promptly.
That responsiveness — the ability to feel the direct connection between what I eat and how I feel — is one of the gifts of two years of metabolic healing. My body communicates clearly now. I have learned to listen.
🍽️ The Evening Meal — How I Think About Dinner
Dinner is where I eat the most freely — and where I enjoy food the most.
Not because anything goes. But because by dinner, the metabolic work of the day is largely done. My blood sugar has been stable. My protein needs have been substantially met. And dinner becomes less about metabolic management and more about pleasure, nourishment, and the ritual of eating well.
What dinner typically looks like:
A quality protein — wild-caught fish, pasture-raised chicken, eggs in a different form than breakfast or grass-fed beef (I personally can't eat beef since being allergic to it since 2020 but if you are able it's a great source of protein).
Abundant roasted or cooked vegetables — brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, zucchini, green beans, asparagus. I cook in butter, avocado or olive oil. I season generously. I eat abundantly.
A starch if I want one — rice, potato, roasted root vegetables — but eaten after taking the diverse plant based fiber supplement (I use daily), vegetables and protein rather than as the centerpiece.
No seed oils. No ultra-processed ingredients. Real food, cooked simply, with healthy fats and abundant plants.
What I avoid in the evening:
Eating close to bedtime — I close the kitchen at a consistent time to honor my fasting window.
Large amounts of refined sugar or high-glycemic carbohydrates that would destabilize overnight blood sugar.
The mindless evening snacking that I now recognize as the nervous system reaching for dopamine rather than genuine hunger.
🚶 The Movement That Wraps the Day
After dinner, I walk.
Not every night. But most nights — especially when weather permits, which in Ohio means much of the year.
Ten to twenty minutes. Nothing structured. Often with my husband. Often on our property, which grounds me in a way that a treadmill never has.
This post-meal walk is, clinically speaking, one of the most powerful blood sugar management habits available. My muscles are absorbing glucose directly during movement, reducing the insulin demand from the meal, and lowering the blood sugar that would otherwise peak in the 30-60 minutes following dinner.
But honestly? I do it because it feels like the best part of the day.
The biology and the pleasure converged. And that convergence — where what is good for me is also what I genuinely want to do — is one of the clearest signs that metabolic healing has happened at a deep level.
💛 What I Want You to Take From This
I am not asking you to eat exactly what I eat.
Your life is different from mine. Your preferences, your family, your schedule, your body's specific needs — all different.
What I am offering is a window into what these principles actually look like when they are lived, not just understood.
Fiber before carbs is not complicated. It is a handful of raw vegetables before the rest of the meal.
Protein at every meal is not complicated. It is eggs, or fish, or chicken, or legumes, chosen intentionally as the anchor of what you build around.
A fasting window is not complicated. It is closing the kitchen at a consistent time and waiting until genuine hunger arrives in the morning.
Post-meal movement is not complicated. It is a ten-minute walk after dinner.
Diverse plants are not complicated. They are a rotating cast of vegetables, legumes, seeds, and herbs across the week — each one different, each one feeding a slightly different corner of the gut microbiome that is running your metabolic health from the inside.
It is not perfect.
It is not rigid.
It is consistent.
And consistent is what changes the biology.
✨ Rooted Reset Practice This Week
✔ Notice what your first meal of the day looks like this week — and whether it has protein and fiber before carbohydrates. Just notice. No judgment.
✔ Try eating something with fiber — even a few bites of vegetables or avocado — before your first carbohydrate today. Notice your energy two hours later.
✔ Add a 10-minute walk after dinner at least three evenings this week. Make it a ritual rather than an obligation.
✔ Count your different plant foods this week — not as a stressful task, but as an interesting experiment. How many different plants can you get into seven days?
✔ Reply and tell me: what does your typical day of eating actually look like right now? I genuinely want to know — not to judge it, but because understanding where you are is where the most useful conversation begins.
💬 Let's Talk About It
What does your first meal of the day look like?
What is the pattern you fall into most naturally — and is it serving you?
Reply and tell me. This week I want a real conversation about real food in real life.
🌿 Want Support?
If you want to know more specifically about the protocol I follow — the products I use, the fasting approach, the fiber strategy that was the foundation of my two-year transformation — reach out directly.
I will share exactly what worked for me.
💬 Join our free Natural GLP-1 Support Facebook Group — come share what your day of eating looks like and let's talk about it together.
📥 Or reach out directly — I would love to have that conversation with you.
Rooting for you — always,
Rachel xo
Rachel xo
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